The amount of data transferred between electronic devices has grown tremendously the last several years. Large amounts of audio, streaming video, text, and other types of data content are now regularly transferred among desktop and portable computers, media devices, handheld media devices, displays, storage devices, and other types of electronic devices. Since it is often desirable to transfer this data rapidly, the data rates of these transfers have substantially increased.
These data transfers may occur over various media. For example, the data transfers may be made wirelessly, over cables including wire conductors, over fiber optic cables, or they may be made in other ways.
Cables that include wire conductors may include a connector insert at each end. The connector inserts may be inserted into receptacles in the communicating electronic devices. Other cables may be tethered, that is, they may be connected directly to components internal to one of the communicating electronic devices.
Transferring data at these rates has proven to require new types of cable. Conventional cables are proving to have insufficient capabilities to handle signals at these higher data rates. New cables having improved capabilities are thus needed.
For example, conventional cables tend to have higher parasitic components, such as series resistance, than may be desirable. These parasitic components may degrade signal levels and, along with other factors (such as reflections and parasitic capacitances), lead to higher insertion losses. These higher insertion losses may lead to reduced signal amplitude and corrupted signal edges, making accurate data reception more difficult.
Thus, what is needed are circuits, methods, and apparatus that provide cables capable of high-speed data transmission and have a low insertion loss.